The oldest country club in the United States serves as the perfect setting for next week’s 111th Massachusetts Amateur Golf Championship.
Beginning Monday, The Country Club in Brookline welcomes a deep and talented field to its storied grounds, and Franklin County will be well-represented in pursuit of the top honor in Massachusetts amateur golf.
Founded in 1882, The Country Club has played host to many of golf’s most historic moments. It was the venue for the 1999 Ryder Cup, won by the United States after Justin Leonard holed a 45-foot birdie putt on the 17th hole. The course was also home to the 1913 U.S. Open, in which American Francis Ouimet became the first-ever amateur to capture the championship. Three U.S. Opens have been played there, most recently in 1988 (won by Curtis Strange), while the U.S. Amateur Championship was also held at The Country Club in 2013.
Suffice it to say, the chance to play in such a big tournament at one of the nation’s most famous courses was a draw for local golfers.
“Some of the greatest champions of all time have played there,” offered South Deerfield’s Jonathan Elkins, who will participate in his second Mass. Am next week. “The past two years I’ve become a bit of a golf history nut so that’s all really interesting to me. It’s really cool to be able to compete in the same place as some of the best to ever do it. It’s such a prestigious place.”
Defending champion Patrick Frodigh delivered a 4 & 3 victory over Herbie Aikens in last year’s 36-hole match-play final, played at George Wright Golf Course in Boston. This year’s event kicks off Monday and will feature stroke-play rounds on Monday and Tuesday before the field is whittled down to 32 players for match play beginning Wednesday. The finals are set for Friday.
Greenfield’s Cody Booska has enjoyed the most success of any local player in the field at the Mass. Am. The Turners Falls native reached the quarterfinal round of the 2017 event and has punched a match-play ticket on two different occasions. Next week’s tournament marks the seventh appearance in the event for the 23-year-old, and he’ll tee off his opening round Monday at 12:59 p.m.
“I’ve actually been looking up some YouTube videos of the (1999) Ryder Cup,” revealed Booska, who played his practice round at The Country Club earlier this week. “It’s pretty cool to see the holes I just played and the historic things that happened on some of the holes there. The course is immaculate. The main focus is going to be hitting fairways out there. If you hit the fairway, you should be able to put up a good score there but you need to find the fat parts of the fairway because there’s some thick rough and fescue.”
Booska, who is fresh off recording his second-career hole-in-one earlier this week in a U.S. Amateur qualifier, said he’s striking the ball well but needs to make more putts if he wants to be successful next week. He finished in a tie for 63rd last year, missing the match play cut after posting rounds of 73 and 76.
“As I say every year, the main goal is to make it to Wednesday, make it to match play,” Booska said. “If you can grind and get into match play, it kind of becomes a different golf tournament from there. With a course like this, you never know what the scores are going to look like in stroke play so every shot matters.”
Perhaps no one locally is riding as high as South Deerfield’s Jacob Zaranek. The 21-year-old is fresh off an outstanding tournament earlier this week, when he qualified for the U.S. Amateur Championship thanks to a runner-up finish in a qualifier at Longmeadow Country Club. Zaranek will compete in the nation’s top amateur tournament next month at Pinehurst Resort & Country Club (N.C.), but before then, he’ll test his mettle against the best the Bay State has to offer at The Country Club.
The Fairfield University rising junior is making his Mass. Am debut. He’s stayed plenty busy this season, beginning with an appearance with partner Kyle Puzzo in the U.S. Amateur Four-Ball Championship earlier this spring at Oregon’s Bandon Dunes. In between Monday’s qualifier and next week’s Mass. Am, Zaranek tied for second place in the Vermont Amateur, and he’ll continue his busy summer with appearances in the New England Amateur and Massachusetts Public Links moving forward. He tees off his first round Monday at 12:15 p.m.
Elkins tied for 83rd in his Mass. Am debut last year, posting rounds of 73 and 79 before missing the cut into match play. The 18-year-old has been sharp this spring and summer, and enters his second appearance in the tournament with confidence. He’ll tee off Monday at 1:54 p.m.
“It’s a big field, a great field,” said Elkins. “You get the best players there. I kind of went into it last year not really expecting to do much. I had the mindset to make match play but this year, there’s a lot more confidence. I qualified for a reason. I’m in the field for a reason.”
The Taft School (Conn.) rising senior knows the short game will make or break his chances next week, and he’s hoping to find a putting stroke that gets the job done.
“My success relies on my putting,” Elkins said. “I’m hitting the ball the best I ever have in my life. But (putting), that’s where the low scores lie, so I need to putt well.”
Greenfield’s Jake Willis will make his Mass. Am debut at The Country Club, and he tees off Monday at 2:05 p.m. The 19-year-old Nichols College rising junior has played well this summer, and he punched his ticket for the tournament with a strong showing at the qualifier held at Crestview Country Club in Agawam last month.
“It’s really special for me to qualify there, it’s such a historic golf course,” said Willis, who graduated from Pioneer Valley Regional School in 2017. “I’m definitely ecstatic. I really don’t have expectations, just go out and have fun, soak in every moment. It’d be great to make match play, but the expectations are just go out there, have fun and do my best.”
Willis said his solid start to the summer, which also includes a qualification to the Mass. Amateur Public Links, can be credited in large part to a growing confidence, along with some swing help from friend and fellow Country Club of Greenfield member Nate Burdick.
“And my putting has definitely been improving,” he offered. “I’ve always been a good ball striker and driver of the golf ball but my short game has improved. I’ve been making the five-footers this summer.”
Greenfield’s Andy Lesenski is also in the field, and the Northfield Golf Club standout tees off his Monday round at 1:10 p.m. Amherst’s Ron Laverdiere, who plays out of Crumpin-Fox Club, has a morning tee time Monday as he’ll get his tournament underway at 8:14 a.m.